The Invention of the Roller Flour Mill 



Bv Publiuis Virgilius Lawson, LL. B. 



[From Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1907 J 



MADISON 

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 

1908 




John Stevens, of Neenah 

Inventor of the roller flour mill. From photograph by Stimpson 



The Invention of the Roller Flour Mill 



By Publius Virgilius Lawson, LL. B. 



[From Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1907] 



MADISON 

STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN 

1908 



Wisconsin Historical Society 



a/ 

The Invention of the Roller 



.rf 



Flour Mill 



By Publius Virgilius Lawson, LL. B. 

Wheat forms the principal source of the food of the race. 
Its milling into flour was among the earliest industrial ac- 
tivities of mankind. It was a citizen of Wisconsin who made 
the greatest improvement in the milling or grinding of wheat, 
and in the flour j)roduct as well as in the reduction of cost, 
that had been brought about in all the history of the world. 
It is an honor to our State that the invention which is out- 
lined in this paper takes rank with the greatest inventions and 
discoveries of history. 

Up to about thirty years ago, methods of milling were ap- 
proximately but refinements of the earliest methods, a short 
review of which will aid us in understanding this invention. 
J. P. Schumacher of Green Bay has in his collection a log, 
two feet long, with a deep cavity worked into one end 
in which reposes a long pestle with a rounded head. In 
primitive days this was used by Menominee Indians to pul- 
verize their maize; and after contact with the whites, their 
wheat. On the bank of Fox River, on Doty Island, near the 
old log house of Governor Doty, there is a green stone bonlder 
with a slightly-polished cavity, which was used by Winneba- 
go for the same purpose. Similar artifacts have been recovered 
from the ancient lake dwellings in Switzerland, such as a 
rounded stone, the size of the hand, fitting a cavity in another 
stone between whose surfaces wheat was pulverized. By fit- 
ting the upper stone for rotation, the original primitive mill 

[244] 



Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

called the quern ^voulcl be formed. The preparation of meal 
or flour was part of the domestic duties in times as remote as 
Abraham. Sarah was asked to ''make ready quickly, three 
measures of fine meal." This also shows an early distinction 
in the product. Similar jDrimitive milling devices are des- 
cribed by Livingstone in Africa, and exist in India to this 
day. In Deuteronomy it is laid down, ''that no man shall 
take the nether or the upper mill stone to pledge, for he tak- 
eth the man's life to pledge." Among the Hebrews and Ro- 
mans the women made both the flour and the bread. It was 
not until a hundred and seventy-three years before Christ 
that the first baker introduced the craft, and the first male 
baker was his own miller. Larger stones were used and horse 
power employed; then water power made one stone rotate on 
the other. A pair of Roman miU. stones were found in Adel, 
in Yorkshire. In very early times in England, the maid was 
the miller as weU as baker; King Ethelbert imposed a i>en- 
alty upon ''any man who should corrupt the king's grinding 
maid." 

Sir Walter Scott has described the primitive water mills in 
Scotland. Dr. Johnson mentions in his travels the crude water 
mills there, declaring that when these were too far distant, 
the housewife Avould grind her oats with the quern, or hand 
mill, which he describes. This was a small mill, consisting of 
a stone with a cavity, into which fitted another stone with a 
handle, also having a hole in the centre, through which the 
kernels of corn passed between the stones, when the upper was 
rotated. The lower stone had a spout below, through which 
the meal fell into a basin. 

Improvements in the art, and an increased demand, brought 
into use in quite early times the mill or buhr-stones, as known 
for hundreds of years in milling practice (see Figure 1). The 
best stone of which to make these was found in France. 
Rubble blocks formed into a round Avheel 50 inches in diame- 
ter, and a foot thick, bound together with iron tires, dressed 
flat on one side, and then dressed or grooved, so that when one 
is rotated on the other, the picked or grooved lines will act 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

on the grain riiii through them, like a pair of scissors, "and 
thus the effect of the stone on the grain is at once cutting, 
squeezing, and crushing.'' As the kernel of wheat is composed 
of five parts, with several hard and cellular coats as well as 
the germ, much of which is not wanted in the flour, this 
method of crushing and pulverizing all into a mixed mass of 
fine particles, made it next to impossible to refine or separ- 
ate a good grade of flour from the mixture of bran middlings, 
dust, and germ. In Hungary, the great milling centre of the 
European continent, they made black bread. There was a tax 
laid on each run of stone ; and the demand for flour increasing, 
rather than add more run of stone, they devised a cutting ma- 
chine to aid the stone. This was composed of a set of wood- 
en or iron rolls having their faces fitted with numerous 
sharp teeth or knives, through which the gTain was passed, 
cutting it into shreds, which were then run through between 
the mill stones, and ground to powder (see Figure 2). This 
process greatly increased the product of the stones, and saved 
the payment of the tax. This wheat saw-mill used to aid the 
«tone was the only roller mill devised in Hungary; but was 
not the non-cutting roller mill invented in ISTeenah, now the 
milling method generally used throughout the civilized world. 
A finer taste in England constantly demanded from the 
skill of the miller a whiter flour. His effort was, therefore, 
put forth to the utmost to refine the pulverized mass that 
poured from between the mill stones ; but his best product only 
resulted in about twenty per cent or one fifth good flour — ^flour 
that was granular and light-colored or white; the bran and 
middlings discarded were still rich in food values, and the 
milling methods were still crude. In the United States, 
^Rochester early became a great milling centre, and about 
l(S68-70 ^eenali, Wisconsin, Avas a leading Western milling 
mart.^ In 18G0 Minneapolis was a saw-mill to\Yn with a 



1 In 1879 there were seven flour mills in the city of Neenah, making 
fourteen hundred and twenty-five barrels of flour daily, with an an- 
nual output worth $2,565,000. — Richard J. Harney, History of Winne^ 
iago County (Oshkosh, 1880). 

[24:6] 



Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

population of 5,809. By 1870 its population had increased to 
13,066. Fifteen years later, after the introduction of the 
roller mill for the hard spring wheat, there were 129,200 
people in this city, and it had sent a million people into j\Iin- 
nesota and Dakota to raise hard wheat. 

The difficulty of the miller's problem is best understood by 
a study of the wheat kernel itself. After it had passed be- 
tween the primitive mill stones, the question was how to sep- 
arate the mass into its constituent parts. The hopelessness 
of success lay in the fact that the stones had so crushed the 
parts together, that it was impossible for the bolting cloth to 
separate the different particles. The centre of the Avheat 
kernel is a fine starch. In the crease at one end is located 
the ii'crm, which is soft and oily. This makes the low-grade 
flour. The outer coat is a hard, horny covering, which pro- 
duces bran. The inner coat is a finer covering making mid- 
dlings. Between these two there is a cellular coat designed 
to keep the germ from freezing. In winter wheat these cells 
are dark ; but in the spring or ]\Iinnesota red or hard w^heat 
they are almost black, and by the old process were pulverized as 
fine as flour. ISText beneath the middling coat is deposited 
the granular flour that is most highly prized as whitest and 
most nutritious, and sells for the highest price. There is 
more of this granular flour in the hard spring wheat than in 
the softer winter ^^'heat. Winter wheat was largely raised 
in Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, and IMissouri, and St. Louis be- 
came a centre for its milling. Even if particles of the coats 
and cells became mixed with this flour it still was whiter than 
that produced by the hard Dakota wheat, which though 
richer in flour matter made uuprofital'tlc flour, and sold for 
five to thirty cents less per bushel than Wisconsin winter 
wheat. The hard northern wheat, which is today the nucleus 
of the flour-milling industry, was rejected for want of mechan- 
ical devices to utilize it. Such in brief was the state of this 
industry, when the invention of the Stevens non-cutting 
roller mill changed the whole milling process. 

John Stevens, the inventor of the roller flour mill, was bom 

[247] 



Wisconsin Historical Society 

Doceinber 4, 18-LO, iu Llecliryd. Cardigaashirej four miles 
out of Cardigan, Wales, son of John and Elizabeth Bowen 
Stevens, natives of Wales. By trade the father was a land- 
scape gardener and was engaged on neighboring landed estates. 
With his family he early emigrated to Canada. iThey in 
1850 removed to Fremont, Ohio; and in 1854, to Neenah, 
Wisconsin, making the journey by the Michigan Southern 
Railway to Chicago, thence by boat to Green Bay, where 
they took the Fox River steamer "Pioneer" to Ivaukauna, and 
then went by team to ISTeenah, With the father came his 
wife, his sons Ebb and John and daughter Eliza. The latter 
married Rev. R. W. Davis, a Welsh pastor, and both soon 
returned to Whales where she died. Ebb Stevens became a 
soldier and farmer. The father died in Xeenah in 1885 at 
96 years of age. 

John Stevens, the inventor, was thirteen years of age when 
he landed in jSTeenah, where he has since made his home. 
It devolved upon him at this early age to become the main 
support of the family and he went to work in the flour mills. 
He Avas obliged to be self-su]^porting and to maintain his 
parents, to be self-educated, and he became iu the broadest 
sense a self-made man. He commenced in the mills as a 
helper r.nd sweeper; and in 1859, was elevated to the position 
of flour packer at the mill of Smith and Proctor; and the 
next year went as miller with John l\Tills, in the brick mill on 
the upper race. Here occurred the events which changed the 
milling practice of the vrorld. There came from the East at 
this time, one named Tom Oborn, whom Mr. Stevens regards 
as the best miller he ever knew; he was engaged to peck or 
dress stone in the brick mill, then operated by John Mills. 
Oborn was born iu England, and learned the trade of miller 
in that country. After a milling career in l^eenah of about 
ten years, he became head miller at Brandon, Fond du Lac 
County, where he died in 18T4. 

It was from Tom Oborn that Mr. Stevens learned how to 
dress stone, and this Avas different from all milling practice 
then in use, and different from that taught iu the books. It 

[248] 



Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

was the practice among all millers to pick the face of the stone 
in sharp-edged grooves, so that thej would cut, slash, and rip 
as well as crush and pulverize the mass between the stones. 
By this method the best bolting system devised could only sep- 
arate twenty per cent of good flour. The method used by 
Tom Oborn was not to pick the stone, but to leave it as 
smooth as possible. He merely picked off the higher parts 
left by the wearing of the stone ; and then when the mill w&a 
started ran water through them to aid in smoothing them 
down. By the stone-dressing practice of Tom Oborn the mill 
was enabled to i3roduce twenty-five per cent of good flour, or 
five barrels more out of every one hundred barrels made, 
than any other mill. This flour was worth $2.00 per barrel, 
more than the lower or darker grade. Oborn taught Stevens 
the secret of his methods and thus assisted him to make a 
success as a miller. 

A stone mill, erected at !N"eenah by Smith and Lisk, was 
operated under lease by A. W. Patton, and Stevens was en- 
gaged as boss miller. Soon afterward he commenced business 
for himself with Sam Oborn as Oborn and Stevens, in a flour 
mill leased of J, and H. Kimberly; and in 1861, the firm 
bought the Stone mill, Mr. Stevens selling his interest to S'am 
Oborn in 1864, In this year Stevens commenced his career 
with J. L. Clement, by forming a partnership and purchas- 
ing the brick mill built by John Mills, which adjoined the 
old stone mill of Smith and Lisk. The latter was then 
owned by Olmstead. from whom in 1873 it was purchased by 
Clement and Stevens and the stone and brick mills were 
imited. After successfully operating these mills for seventeen 
years Stevens sold out to his partner and gave up the milling 
business. During the term of this partnership he had made 
the invention of the roller mill, demonstrated its superiority, 
and obtained his patents. When Stevens in 1881 sold his in- 
terest in the flour milling business, he was a wealthy man, 
having at forty years of age acquired a fortune. 

Beginning as a Welsh emigrant, he had to leam the science 
and art of milling, and had become a success both as a miller 

[249] 



Wisconsin Historical Society 

and as a business man. When asked where he obtained his 
mechanical ability he replied, that his ancestors were all 
mechanics and inventors, that his skill came by inheritance, 
and new devices suggested themselves readily to his mind. 
He invented a self-priming pump, and an automatic paint 
brush for marking barrel heads. His patented automatic 
and register scale he regards as among the most useful millers' 
devices. This was sold to the trust, with his roller mill pat- 
ents, in 1893. 

Pondering over the reason why the smooth milling stone as 
taught him by Tom Oborn would make better flour and more 
good flour than the old method, it occurred to him that the 
explanation lay in less cutting and powdering of the husk of 
the berry. The wheat kernel was rolled open and the flour 
separated without so much pulverizing of the outer coat, and 
the separation by the bolts resulted in a larger percent- 
age of good flour. His mind was constantly employed in 
thinlviug out some mechanical device that would open the 
berry and leave the bran practically intact. Any radical 
change in the milling system that had existed during all the 
history of the world seemed impossible. However, the idea 
of crushing the wheat between rolls occurred to him. He kept 
it constantly in his mind. Every new device that suggested 
itself came back to the rolls. He made numerous draw- 
ings, then a crude model, then w^ooden rollers; finally between 
1870 and 18Y2 he had some chilled rolls made. They were 
twelve inches in diameter and two feet long. These he sent 
to Cincinnati to have a corrugation cut on their faces; but 
they could not cut the hard steel. He tried the Pusey and 
Jones machine shops at Wilmington, Delaware, but they 
could not cut his rolls. Finally he sought the famous roll- 
makers at Ansonia, Connecticut, Farrell and Sons. They 
could not cut the chilled rolls; but they made him a pair of 
rolls in w'hich they could cut the corrugation upon the face. 
He had now obtained his rolls and had his fi-ame made to 
operate them. Then he invented a device to feed the wheat 
evenly along the slight opening between the rolls, and began 

[ 250 ] 



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Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

experiments to discover the difference in speed eacli should 
rim in relation to the other. The rolls were rotated in oppo- 
site directions to carry the grain through between them, but 
one roll ran faster than its mate. The adjustment of the 
mechanism was simply a matter of experiiuent. The device 
having proved successful, he reduced the size of the rolls to 
nine inches diameter, and set up several of these new ma- 
chines in his own mills. Their superiority over the stone 
mills was at once apparent, whereupon the latter were all dis- 
carded and replaced by roller mills. 

By the buhr stone process, his mills, running at their highest 
capacity could produce 200 barrels of flour a day. By the 
new process with the same power he made 500 barrels a 
day. By the old buhr stone process he could only obtain 
twenty-five per cent good flour, other mills only twenty per 
cent ; while by his new process he had ninety per cent good 
flour. The significance of this invention can be better under- 
stood when it is stated that the good or high grade flour 
brought $2.00 a barrel more than the lower grade, and thus 
Clement and Stevens were making a large profit each day over 
their competitors. They had more than doubled their out- 
put and quadrupled the quality without any additional mill 
power or expense of operation, ^o wonder theset results 
created excitement The mill was kept securely locked, but 
people broke in and took plans. A watchman was secured 
but they evaded him. 

The experiments begun in 1870, continued until the roller 
mill was successfully operated in 1874. Then Stevens ap- 
plied to the oldest patent law firm in the United States to 
draw his specifications and obtain his patents. They filed the 
claim for the rollers and were refused a patent, as the patent 
office would not grant a patent on rollers; they were very old, 
though never before applied in this way. Finally after two 
years' delay Stevens songht Parkinson and Parkinson, a ipkt- 
ent law firm of Cincinnati, who seemed better to understand 
his invention, anrl filed his application December 28, 1877, for 

17 [ 351 ] 



Wisconsin Historical Society 

a ""grain crushing roll invented by John Stevens, IS^eenah, Wis- 
consin." 

This application was witnessed by his partner J. L. Clem- 
ent, and by A. W. Hart. The claim is: "In a grinding mill, 
the combination of rolls geered to revolve at different periph- 
eral rates of speed, and having a dress composed of fine p^ar- 
allel grooves laid near together, with appreciable plane but- 
faces between and so as to cross each other on the contiguous 
surfaces of the rolls." For this a patent was granted, number 
225,770, dated March 23, 1880. (See Figure 3.) 

As stated in the specification, ''the mill is employed for 
cracking wheat or other grain, and operating on the same, 
through the various stages of its reduction to flour and also 
for grinding and cleaning the bran," and the action of the 
spiral grooves operated as specified, was "admirably adapted 
to strip adhering starch and gluten from the bran." These 
grooves crossing each other in manner as stated, leave "the 
husk and germ in the flakey or discoidal condition, most 
conducive to its effectual separation from the flour and mid- 
dlii]gs." This patent Stevens named "the fine scratch roll," 
and was the "foundation patent,'' and absolutely a new dis- 
covery in milling practice, the most profound in its results 
of any other device ever invented in the mechanics of flour 
milling. February 13, 1878, he made application for a pat- 
ent, issued May 25, 1880, Ko. 228,001, for "the roller grind- 
ing mill;" this was his roll dressed on its face with the round 
rib, or wash-board face. This application was witnessed by 
S'olon C. Keumon and Charles A. Pettit. As outlined in the 
spcciiications, the object aimed in milling is, "to increase the 
proportion of middlings and pure flour, leaving the bran and 
germ in a condition most favorable to their removal. Smooth 
surfaced rolls ^^•onld flatten the germ, and allow" the bran to 
pass unpulverized, "and to this extent accomplish the object, 
but they also cause the middlings to cake or form into flakes 
or thin disks, that Avill not pass the meshes of the bolt, and 
therefore in the end not satisfactory. On the other hand 
grooved rolls with sharp edges cut or tear the bran and germ 

[ S52 ] 



Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

into fine particles," and it gets into the flour. Tbe round 
rib was "designed to overcame these objections," and is the 
system of dressing roller mill in universal use today the world 
over. 

It was in this patent, that the system of "gradual reduc- 
tion" was outlined and described by Stevens, by which the 
grain was to pass in succession through one set of rolls after 
another, being bolted or cleaned between each set, and each 
set having a different degree of fineness to its corrugation. 
The usual number of sets in the system is six. The first or 
break rolls have ten ribs or corrugated lines to one inch; the 
second set or second break had twelve to fourteen ribs; the 
third set had sixteen to eighteen ribs; the fourth eighteen to 
iwenty; tho fifth twenty-two to twenty-four; and the sixth 
had as nu^ny as thirty-two ribs to the inch, being mere 
scratches and intended for middlings rolls. In applying for 
a patent on this system he made a claim which was allowed 
and reads as follows: "The process of reducing grain to flour, 
consisting in passing it tlirough a series of sets of rolls, 
graded in respect to fineness of dress, and through bolts, in- 
termediate between each set, and the succeeding set o£ rolls." 
This system is now the universal practice in milling through- 
out the civilized world. 

To prevent a possible attempt to set aside his roller system 
operated in pairs, he devised and applied for a patent on De- 
cember IG, ISTO, for a "grinding mill" having a single roll 
and a concave stationary face between which the grain was 
to pass. Patent number 230,83-1 was issued to John Steven-? 
for this on August 3, 1880. On mvember 4, 1880, he ap- 
plied for a patent on a dial indicator, devised so that the oper- 
ator could instantly adjust the rolls to each other. This pat- 
ent issued the ne^xt month, December 28, 1880, numbered 
236,104. The application for this was witnessed by the late 
Hon. Eobert Shiells and Alexander McKaughton. In De- 
cember 16, 1870. he made application for a "blunt non-cutting 
crest" dressing of the rolls to supplement his system ; and for 
this a later patent was issued January 24, 1882, number 

[ 2.53 ] 



Wisconsin Historical Society 

252,705. December 29, 1882, Stevens made application for 
a patent on his complete roller mill frame and housing with 
adjustments designed for single sets in one frame or double 
sets. This was ^vitnessed by J. P. Shiells and the late Alex- 
ander Mel^aughton. Letters patent were issued September 2, 
1884, number 304,468. 

These are the six essential patents Stevens obtained for the 
invention of the roller mill. The first two are the basic de- 
vices which place his name high in the annals of invention. 
As soon as his mill was fitted, and operated at enormous 
profits, by the new system, it was next to impossible to keep 
it to himself. Very soon all the local machine shops were en- 
gaged nights and Sundays in secretly trying to form roller sets. 
Other machine shojis did find out the system ; and mill-furnish- 
ing concerns vied with each other in devising roller mills. The 
issue of his patent hung so long in the patent office, that by 
1880, Avhen it was finally issued, the system had been men- 
tioned in the press and talked of for six years." 

In 1878 occurred the great flour-mill fire in Minneapolis 
that was attended by a disastrous explosion of flour mill 
dust, and considerable loss of life. Governor Washburn and 
others rebuilt at once, and introduced largely the new devices 
and gradual reduction rolls. Two years later, soon after ob- 
taining his first two basic patents, Stevens visited the mills 
at Minnea]^olis where twenty-two mill-firms (in the city) set- 
tled with him, and took shop rights to run the patent rolls. 
Most other mills that had introduced his new system settled 
at once and took shop rights. 

Stevens also took out patents in Canada, England, Ger- 
many, France, and Austria. 

As soon as the basic patent for the roller mill was obtained 
by Stevens, he arranged with John T. l^oye & Sons Co. of 



~ Harney, Winnebago County, states that "these mills at Neenah are 
chiefly large substantial structui'es with all modern improvements in 
flour mill machinery, to which within the last two years has been 
added the new patent machinery for the manufacture of patent flour. 
Patent flour now constitutes about eighty per cent of their product." 

[354] 



Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

Buffalo, to inaniifactiire on a royalty, whicli was paid to him 
for thirteen years, and this great mill-furnishing firm be- 
came very successful. In a contemporary letter from one of 
the well-known flour mill firms of Milwaukee to the John T. 
JSToye & Sons Company, under date of ISTovember 22, 1880, it 
is stated: 

In reply to your inquiry as to how we like the Stevens Rollers are 
pleased to say they exceed our most sanguine expectations both in the 
quality of the work, and the percentage of good middlings. The cor- 
rugations being non-cutting, do not cut up the germ nor bran, like the 
sharp cutting roll, consequently the break flour is very white. The 
longer we use them the better the results. We only regret that we 
did not know of them before we commenced our improvements, that we 
might have had them on all our reductions. 

Yours very truly, 

S. H. Seamans & Co. 

After thirteen years' operation under a license to make, the 
Buffalo firm in 1893 purchased, for the use of a syndicate of 
:nill-furnisliers, A\hich would now be called a trust, the entire 
rights of Ste\x'us in all his roller mill patents, including patents 
on his autcnuatic dumping and self-registering scale for hand- 
ling grain. 

The useful results of this invention are numerous and we 
can only outline a few of the important ones. In milling it 
is desirable to have the granular grains or atoms of flour all 
the same size; as, if some are smaller, they take the yeast first, 
and turn it black. This makes heavy bread. The new- 
l^rocess milling produces the regular, granular grain. By use 
of tile rolls, also, the beard of wheat is not broken and pulver- 
ized into the mass, as in the old buhr stone system. The 
germ is so handled in the new process as to be separated from 
the flour, and j^assed off into the bran, though in the practice 
of some mills it is utilized for a low grade flour and sold to a 
cheap trade. 

In the new-process milling the husk or shell containing the 
black cells is cruslied together and passed over the bolts with 
the bran, not pulverized into the mass as in the old-process 
milling. This makes it possible to utilize hard wheat. 
Wheat grows only in the temperate zone and north to an is- 

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Wisconsin Historical Societv 

otliermal line where it will not ripen. It is richest in nutri- 
tious parts useful as a food, when grown nearest that north- 
ern cold line w^here it will not ripen. This wheat is char- 
acterized as hard or red spring wheat and grows best on the 
barren plains of the Dakotas, and throughout that then al- 
most unkno%\7i, but vast region of western Canada, now fast 
filling with wheat-raising settlers. Under the buhr-stone 
milling process this wheat could not be used at the same price 
as softer grade, and sold for less than winter wheat, as ex- 
plained above. The roller mill has made it the most val- 
uable of the wheat grains and gives it the highest price as it 
has the highest food value. Some day this invention of John 
Stevens will make Canada a rival to the United States in 
flour production. 

The introduction of the roller system in the Minneapolis 
mills in 1S80, added one hundred thousand people to the 
citizenship of that place in five years, and made it almost at 
a single bound the flour milling emporium of America; by 
1886, sweeping into its mills annually thirty-three million 
bushels of wheat, that ten years before was almost worthless; 
and settling the bleak northwestern prairies with several mil- 
lions of hardy pioneers raising wheat. This invention drove 
wheat raising from Wisconsin and the Middle West, and 
closed the flour mills of Stevens's ow^n city.^ 



3 That this change is still contiii'iing is shown by the following 
quotation from the last State census: '"The acreage of wheat has de- 
creased from 417,163 acres in 1895 to 210,010 in 1905. and the value 
from $4,225,728, to $2,267,701." The tobacco crop of Wisconsin is val- 
ued at three hundred thousand dollars more than the wheat crop. 
During the same census decade, the cheese and butter output in the 
State increased in value $20,401,000. The total increase in the valu-j 
of all other farm products is $106,000,000, while wheat fell off one- 
half in product and value. In 1895, according to reports made to the 
Oshkosh Northwestern, 1,500,650 bushels of wheat were raised in 
Winnebago County. By the census of 1905, on an acreage of 2,984, 
there were but 35,216 bushels raised in the same county; and by this 
(1907) year's report made by the assessors to the county clerk, the 
acreage has been reduced to less than half, or 1272 in two years. 

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Invention of Roller Flour Mill 

jSTot only did Stevens's invention affect the activities of vast 
acres of farm lands, but it also made it impossible and un- 
profitable to mill longer with the buhr stone. There was no 
market for the product. The invention of the roller mill 
made a scrap heap of half a billion dollars invested in mill- 
machinery around the civilized world. The writer was 
caught in the flood with two mills, and as no one would buy 
or sell the flour they made, though it was the good old flour 
of our childhood, his loss Avas thirty thousand dollars. 

Dr. Graham, who advocated the use of Graham or whole 
wheat flour, was partly correct, as the best part of the flour 
was fed to cattle with the middlings ; but to use Dr. Graham's 
flour now, would be a mistake. There is no nutriment in the 
bran. The middlings are regTound on the finest or last set 
of rolls in the series, and the flour resultant brings the high- 
est price and has the highest food value. The new system has 
made it possible to obtain this result. This flour is richer than 
the wheat. The term now so generally in use, "patent flour," 
is that applied to the roller -milling process. 

The saving of power by the use of the roller mill was of 
great economic value in itself. The reason for this saving is, 
that a shorter lever is needed for the rolls, compared with 
that of the old stone. From the centre of the stone where 
the power of propulsion was applied, to the edge where the 
power was expended, was twenty-five inches. In the roll the 
distance from the centre to the edge is but four and a haK 
inches. The relative value of energy saved was the difference 
between the shorter and longer lever. In reality it is much 
more, because of the saving in power necessary to actuate the 
new bolting system, made possible by the character of ma- 
terials delivered from the rolls, thus making it possible and 
desirable to discard the old and cumbersome system of reel 
bolts. 

Our inventor has tra.velled in every country on the globe, 
but his first return visit to Great Britain was not made until 
May, 1874, when he visited Scotland with the late Hon. Rob- 
ert Shiells, two years after his invention of the roUer mill. 

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Wisconsin Historical Society 

He did not visit Himgarv until 1884, four years after his 
basic patents had been issued, and three years after he had 
sold all interest in flour mills, and twelve years after his in- 
vention had been made. So there can be no truth in the cur- 
rent rumor that he found the roller mill in Hungary, and 
brought it home with him. By the time he reached Hun- 
gary, the only roller mill ever devised in that country was a 
curiosity or had been sold for old iron. The system in- 
vented by Stevens was patented to him by the Austrian govern- 
ment, and adopted everywhere in that country, where no 
one any longer cares for black bread. The old black bread 
mills of Budapest now vie with each other in a competi- 
tion for the whitest bread. The wheat saw-mill once in use 
in Hungary is described on a former page, and had no re- 
semblance to the Stevens non-cutting rolls. Governor Wash- 
bum's success in milling has been erroneously attributed to 
the introduction of the Hungarian system of gradual reduc- 
tion milling. There was no such system in Hungary, only 
that described above, and this if it had been introduced in 
Minneapolis would never have made successful milling. 

The annual wheat product of the United States is seven hun- 
dred million bushels, which will make one hundred and fifty 
million barrels of flour, worth nine hundred million dollars. 
The net cost of milling has been reduced one-half by the 
invention of Stevens ; and supposing this saving in cost of 
production is partly if not entirely the gain of the con- 
sumer, then the people of the United States save each year 
forty million dollars because of this invention. 



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